Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.
Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (usually Saturday night with a Sunday date). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).
The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.
So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?
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NOTE: The comments page will split off after 20 or so left margin comments with the most recent comments on the current page. To see the older comments, scroll to the bottom of the page (right before “Leave A Reply”) and use the Pages Tool to view previous pages, shown here with 3 pages of comments available and Page 2 circled.
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Good morning, meeses! Wednesday …
It is 59 degrees in Tucson 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 82. Sunny skies are in the forecast. The glorious nearly full moon is sending her light into my office. When I walked out on the deck, which faces east, I saw the green space bathed in moonlight and knew that she would be shining into my office window. I will make a point at 6:19am MST to turn off my office lights and sit in the full moon glow.
It was a good night for Democrats with statehouse wins in Virginia and New Jersey. Surprise wins in Georgia and a repudiation of Good Ol’ Boy’ism with Groper Cuomo losing to the Muslim Socialist in New York City. Maybe the young people are onto something – capitalism has not worked very well for most of us. It made sociopaths like Elon Musk and Peter Theil and Mark Zuckerberg and Rupert Murdoch and Jeff Bezos obscenely wealthy and enriched the destroyers of our planet, the oil companies and mining companies. Maybe a touch of socialism here and there will help even things out and give some power to those who want people to thrive not just rich donors.
It sounds like Republican congress members are losing patience with the Drooling Dotard who they call king. The court ordered SNAP restoration, which made them glad to not have to own the starvation of their own constituents, was cancelled in a late night posting from their king’s “throne”. No one knows what’s next. I hope the emergency money that some states are finding for food banks is enough until it can be sorted out. I saw something that suggested that there are now promises of votes on the ACA subsidies being extended in the next set of bills in exchange for ending the shutdown – I hope someone is making sure that something more than just a promise is part of what is passed. Without the shutdown stick, the Democrats have nothing – the press will not report what they did to try to save the subsidies accurately.
My vehicle saga has not finished and I am starting on round two of necessary repairs. I now have a full assessment and an appointment and will be starting the new year with confidence that my car keep running. Now I just have to avoid being smashed into and run over by the Snow Birds! Gawd are they terrible drivers.
See all y’all later!
Per Aji’s Instagram her people call this the “Freezing-Over Moon” but the temps have been so high/too high for November – she called it the “Too-Warm Moon”.
Wednesday Meese. Democrats turned out in our local elections. Yay!
Puerto Rico
Hurricane Melissa
Good morning. Interesting election results. Locally, a tax proposition went down in flames — it was funding for important stuff like health, homelessness, parks & libraries but the City has made some stupid financial decisions this year and people just said “no”. I’m glad for the Democratic victories. I hope the rotting pumpkin spent the entire night having a tantrum.
It’s 60 heading for 75 and sunny. Yesterday we generated 6.39 KWHs and the m-t-d at 24.96 gained a little ground. Not much. But enough to keep us on track.
Yay! for Dem wins. Hoping we can stop with the “but we can’t do anything, the Rs are in charge” crap. If all we can do is hinder them, then do it. Don’t whine.
I’ve got to stash a cat somewhere so he can’t bolt when I open the back door & hang out some clothes in a few minutes. They’re things Natalia is donating to a women’s shelter but she wants them clean and on hangers. Since she has to work today and I’d like to help get more stuff out of the house, I said I’d do that for her. One more box out of the living room! Yay! It won’t make me any later on my boosting than if I were doing my own weekend chores. The cat will be mad. Hope he won’t be made enough to be pissed off, if you know what I mean. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thoughts for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Cat got out anyway. Sigh. Back in now, thank heavens. I flea goo’d him, just in case, b/c it’s still warm enough here to have fleas out there.
Good morning, 55 and raining in Bellingham today. Watching the Dems win elections and hearing words spoken I agree with was so encouraging last night. I’m avoiding the news this morning, hoping my feelings of “maybe we will be ok” will linger. Best wishes to all.
Good Wednesday afternoon, Moosekind, and happy Guy Fawkes day!
The hospital called to say Dearly is in an ambulance and will be home shortly. (Note to self: Hurry up and do those dishes.)
A song:
Blue, blue, Virginia’s blue
Blue is our Commonwealth, it’s quite true–
Gray, gray, their world is gray
Women’s rights are safe in good old VA!
I am so happy. Saw three of my writers this morning, sang the song to the two I know to be Democrats. The writer I was having coffee with forgot to vote yesterday. Huh? She’s so spaced out by Ambien (by her own admission) that she was 45 minutes late for our 11 o’clock coffee date. Great Goddess.
Can’t stop smiling. Yeah, I know downstate VA is red. However, the counties that matter—Arlington, Fairfax, and increasingly, Loudoun—are populous enough and Democratic enough that we carry the state.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it’s sunny, 72 F. and very windy. Don’t like wind. Hope all at the Pond are having a good day!
Thursday Meese. It’s 46 here in Ulster County.
Good news for us here:
Puerto Rico
Hurricane Melissa
Good morning. Did my walk and I’m sitting in the office. Nice view of the Moon while I walked. Ugh, I hate in-office days. It could be worse, I could be a Fed and laid off or working without pay. Still, I think working in offices is nonsense.
Right there with you, another! Workers should be judged by results, not face time.
If a job can be done from home, it’s wasting not just the employee’s time & money to go into the office, it’s wasting the employer’s time & money to have to have an office (and parking) large enough hold all the employees. It’s never been about efficiency or even the “bottom line”. It’s always been about control.
It’s 49 heading for 75 and overcast at the moment. Widget say sunny so we shall hope. Yesterday we generated 5.9 KWHs and the m-t-d at 30.9 lost a smidge but is still on track for 180.
Same ol’ same ol’ day. The Dems may have won some important elections & I’m glad they did but meanwhile the Rs are still in charge, the govt is still shut down, ICE/gestapo are still raiding our communities, SNAP still hasn’t been distributed, the Market is only going up because it’s being manipulated, and all the rest of the evilness. But I’m OK and if Natalia isn’t exactly OK – she’s under a lot of stress at work & with some family members – she’s safe and able to keep trucking on. Ditto my sons. So. Off to start my boosting day. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good morning, meeses! Thursday …
It is 59 degrees in Tucson 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 82. Sunny skies are in the forecast. Another gloriously full moon last night and this morning. It is almost as if the goddess is beaming down on us, pleased that we seem to be a bit more right-tracked.
I am going to only read news stories that make me feel good: the election and a skeptical SCOTUS listening to the incompetent DOJ people trying to convince them that all laws should be suspended to please the MAGAt king. Nothing will sway Alito or Thomas but maybe the others are getting a sense that they need to rein in the monarch they crowned in their 2024 rulings. I hope so.
I have many things to do today. It appears that November is when I have lots of things set up to expire and need renewing. Plus I got my TurboTax 2025 download yesterday and I need to take a rough pass at taxes so I can do end of year tax planning. I have two volleyball matches to watch on replay and one basketball game to watch (live) later today. I have not seen the Arizona Wildcats play yet and I want to see how they look. So I better get these last few things done so I can shut off my computer soon.
See all y’all later!
Good Thursday morning, Meese! It’s 52 F. and sunny in Ashburn today, going up to 58 F. Last night I saw Her big, beautiful self and was much cheered by the sight. Later in the evening, was startled when the TV started squawking and shrilling about a thunderstorm watch in Loudoun County. Never saw or heard any rain, but the wind was so strong I could hardly open the door to the screened porch. When I did wrestle it open to bring the cushions in, the wind had already blown them all over the porch.
This morning the furniture is knocked over. Not gonna worry about a thang, have more important things to do.
Dearly is FINALLY home. The effing hospital said the effing ambulance was going to get him at 3 p.m. yesterday, but by 5:30 p.m. they still hadn’t showed up. Dearly was spitting teeth! Last time the ambulance came at 8 p.m. and got him here at 9! He called me and asked me to get him an Uber. I don’t have the Uber app, so I called Elder Son, who does, and said, “Huh? I’ll go pick up Dad and bring him home.”
It is WONDERFUL to have Elder Son (who, incidentally, lives 10 minutes away from the stupid hospital). This is payback for when Dearly was 40 years younger and driving Elder Son all over creation (Maryland) for ice hockey practice. At the time Virginia had exactly one ice rink and it was always in use. Anyway, dear Goddess, he’s home now, he’s happier, he slept through the night and is now napping after a light breakfast.
Someone told me I could go to Security and get a watch that detects falls, so you don’t need to be near the pull cord. Ha! I’m going to Security as soon as I’m washed and brushed.
Got to run to Trader Joe’s after that, then we have to go to the doctor this afternoon.
Hoping everyone at the Pond will have a good day.
Good morning, 53 and cloudy outside my windows today. One of the old maple trees is bare now but the other one has lots of leaves waiting to fall. My leaf racking days are over but Ron and our son have mulched several large bags for compost, Bri has cleared our neighbor’s lawn, and the lawn service guys took a truck load away. The garden has a carpet of leaves this morning, so leaf season continues.
Just read Nancy Pelosi is retiring, and at age 85 may she have a few well earned years of just doing what ever she wants to do. Best wishes to all.
I will miss Nancy Pelosi’s steady hand and sound advice but it is time. I hope she has a garden to tend. :)
Second that, Jan!
Good morning, meeses! Friday …
It is 57 degrees in Tucson 🌵 with an expected daytime high of 81. Sunny skies are in the forecast. I would not mind a few degrees warmer in the afternoon; after living here for 3 years, 81 can feel a bit chilly when I try to nap on my deck.
I wonder if the shutdown will ever end? In the olden days, corporate America would put pressure on the Republicans to keep the government open. But in the MAGAt kingdom, corporations cower in fear of the dick-tator and won’t make a peep. They literally prefer losing money and customers over upsetting him. What a freaking mess.
My Arizona Wildcats basketball team won their season opener but it was pretty ugly! I feel sorry for the coach and the team – everyone is new, there are no upperclassmen to get advice about the team and the campus and the city. And they are very short. It will be interesting to watch them and I will cheer their wins but not take their losses to heart. The McKale Center fans were very supportive and I hope they continue to show up. I might try to take in an afternoon game.
I have not made any progress on my big stack of notes and my out-of-control Inbox. I am trying to stay on top of bill paying and forced technology updates which have to take place during the work week. I will try to get caught up over the weekend.
See all y’all later!
Corporate America, thanks to SCOTUS rulings of decades gone by, don’t give a rat’s patootie about losing customers or even revenue as long as the Stock Market is up. When it gets bad enough that they can’t manipulate the Market to keep rising, when the Market finally tanks, they’ll put that pressure on the Rs.
Good Friday morning Meese.
Puerto Rico
Caribbean/Melissa
Good morning. Back to summer here. It’s supposed to get to 90 today & tomorrow. Ugh. But global warming is a hoax. /s.
I’m in the office, the Texas Book Festival is this weekend. I forgot all about it. May try to go, since I forgot to volunteer. John Scalzi and Martha Wells are speaking. But even for my favorite SF authors, coming downtown on a game day…
It’s 60 heading for 74 and supposed to be sunny but it’s not there yet. Yesterday it cleared off by noon and we generated 6.5 KWHs. The m-t-d at 37.48 is on track and gaining.
Natalia and I went to a concert – Rutter’s Requiem – given by “select members” of the choirs of 4 different church (Presbyterian, Methodist, & 2 Episcopalians) backed by piano, organ, timpani, clarinet, cello, and harp. Quiet nice although the applause was rather jarring considering the music in question and Natalia said the harpist was OK but he was sight reading, hadn’t practiced the part. Well, she’d know. She’s played it herself multiple times over the years. The music was too special to just go home afterwards so we went in search of Irish coffees. Didn’t get them. The reasonably quiet looking place we ended up at is an Italian restaurant and they were out of Jamison’s – so we had Bailey’s Irish Cream instead. The coffee was sort of a mistake. We went home and started sorting clothing, mostly hers but some of mine I haven’t worn in over 10 years, and didn’t get to bed until midnight. LOL.
Things aren’t getting any better in the wide-wide world but we’re doing what we can in our own space and to help other folks. To that end, I’m off to start my boosting day. Holding the Good/Healing/Protecting Thought for everybody. {{{Meeses}}}
Good Friday morning, Moosekind! I have a busy day planned. Dearly is asleep again, even before breakfast. That means I can’t do anything noisy, like run the garbage disposal, or load or unload the dishwasher. I did get all the garbage out, because that is relatively noiseless. Right now it’s sunny and 45 F. in Ashburn, on its way up to 63 F.
It won’t happen any time soon, but I am going to see what life would be like without sugar, as if I were a diabetic. Unfortunately, one fruit I really love (mango) is verboten. A fruit I hate (pineapple) is also forbidden. It’s not that I dislike pineapple so terribly much, it’s that they serv far too much of it in the fruit salad here.
Moreover, this is quite the wrong time of year to avoid sugar. But I could start, right? I could limit myself to a certain number of chocolates per day, then cut down gradually to nothing. However, this happens to be Carrot Cake Week at one of the restaurants and there’s no way I’m going to abstain from that.
This morning Kate, our director, will be on the in-house channel talking about “Into the Woods,” which the Drama Club will do next spring. Then I need to run to Trader4 Joe’s. After lunch, nap, and tea, I want to go to the gym, pick up dinner, and then attend the play.
Tomorrow morning is the bazaar. I’m always in the market for cloth coasters—not quilted ones, necessarily, but a double thickness of cloth. They absorb condensation beautifully.
Our campus looks so lovely these autumn days with the leaves changing color (although not very enthusiastically). I don’t like saying I have a favorite season, I find them all beautiful, but man…if you pinned me down, I’d have to say autumn is my favorite.
Wishing a good day to all at the Pond.
Good morning, 54 and mostly cloudy outside my windows today. We’re having a birthday dinner here on Sunday so I’m doing all I can ahead of time with the hope I won’t be to tired to enjoy being with family on Sunday. The menu is simple and Ron will be the main cook, our son shopped with me yesterday and it was fun to be with him, and our daughter will be here tomorrow to bake and set up with me. I’ll do flowers today in between tending to the laundry. It’s nice to be busy, just hope my body cooperates!